Hi Tony, et al,

Thank you for posting that conversation to
societyofficers@urantiabook.simplelists.com . (Somehow I never got
subscribed to socadmin.)

It is, I presume, well known that the revelators were quite
disappointed by the organizational structure proposed for the Urantia
readership, the Foundation and Brotherhood... "Well, if that's the
best you can do. It carries within itself the seeds of its own
emmendation." (as best I remember it from Gordon Bellamy from ~1983,
who got it from Christie when he visited 533 Diversey Parkway in
Chicago some time before that. But I think I've seen it in writing
somewhere, too.) At least it was well known in the beginning. It has
been to me mind boggling to see the tenacity with which this
elaborate, autocratic (and may I say transparently dysfunctional) and
fundamentally dual instead of a unified structure has been held onto,
fundamentally unchanged, by whoever has come to head it - them - in
the full knowledge that its whole form has been "frowned upon" by the very
beings who gave us the UB. Membership in the Fellowship has little
meaning, and the elaborate requirements to join have locked most
readers out. One doesn't "join" the Foundation at all. (I haven't
looked into the IUA. I have the impression it isn't in any fundamental
way better.) What is there then for the average UB reader to "join"
and be a meaningful part of?

This latest news still offers nothing of substance to the readership
or to Fellowship members. We still don't get to elect or otherwise
choose those who are supposed to be leading the movement.

I long ago (1998) asked that study groups be represented as such in
the Fellowship. I pointed out that they are the real organized
families of the readership, and that "keeping them independent and
apolitical" in reality meant locking them out of the decision making
process. (I still have a paper copy of this plan, recently unearthed.)
That's what the French Revolution was about - most of the populous
having no say, which led to leadership and its directions being out of
touch with the nation's needs and self serving.

I e-mailed about it back then with Paula Thompson - a number of
exchanges. She much later had no recollection of it, which shows how
little impact the idea had. Admittedly communication wasn't as good
back then, and I don't suppose the plan ever made it through to any
agenda. And when Bud Kagan's motions for change including electing the
Fellowship president by a vote of all members werre carried by the TDA
(1999 IIRC) but utterly ignored by the "leadership" I became convinced
that no useful action of reorganization would ever be forthcoming. The
Fellowship executive were too busy with their own pet projects (eg,
having the copyright revoked) to be interested in what concerned
readers or their members with ideas had to say. "Membership" seemed to
be just a lip service concept which was really pretty much irrelevent
to those at the center except as a justification for their assumptions
of authority.

In 2003 I played with ideas for organizing the study groups by and for
themselves using the new medium of the internet and e-mail discussion
lists. After a false start or two, near the end of 2004 I created an
e-mail discussion list, the "Study Group Council",
UB-SGC@yahoogroups.com . With the last printed paper study group
directory of some years previous, I phoned and invited contacts from
about 50 groups to subscribe. (This was somewhat weighted towards PNW
region groups.) I thought it would spread from there to include every study
group that wanted to participate. But to date no one from any
organization has done the UB study groups or readers the courtesy of
even mentioning, anywhere or any time, that this exciting new
communication vehicle between study groups exists. With no publicity
membership has been pretty much static. Admittedly I didn't press the
issue. The idea was and is to unite, not to divide by pushing things
on the unwilling.

Also "YahooGroups" and e-mail lists in general have fallen out of
favor as communications vehicles and now no one wants to join because
of that. (And originally, if someone said "yes", I just added their
e-mail to the subscriptions. Later that was changed by YahooGroups. I
can only "invite" and they now have to go off and subscribe
themselves. Then after they say "yes, sounds good", people would
forget about it or otherwise didn't like Yahoo's subscription
procedure or something and didn't subscribe.) I liked the Fellowship's
discussion forum used in discussing the prospect of uniting the three
organizations. That could be a great replacement!

In 2005 I tested the "SGC" as an organizing vehicle by using it to
organize a "Urantia Readers' Campout" on Vancouver Island. This event
was small but successful. People volunteered to do workshops and
readers, some of whom I had never met, came from BC, WA, OR, and even
MB. It was so easy to do when everyone was in communication! So the
concept has been proven to work as an organizational form. Gatherings
and conferences can be organized by readers even without a central
body somewhere. Since then it hasn't been a busy list but there have
been interesting posts and conversations. And Debbie Bartman has kept
the "Vancouver Island Urantia Friends Campouts" going every 2nd year
since!

Tom Choquette told me in 1995 that the Foundation and
Brotherhood/Fellowship were in default of their mandates. I knew there
was dissatisfaction but at the time that seemed to me like an extreme
view. Apparently it was so. So now we have come to the point of the
failure to even, at the very least, unify the organizations even with
a given deadline, August 21st 2017, as impetus. It was predicted long
in advance that reunification efforts would fail, but there has been
every chance for decades and this one last chance. Some time after
that date Machiventa said that celestial support and sanction for
these organizations had been withdrawn. While there is still much good
and good work being done by people within them, no one will be moved
by their angels to participate in the support, upkeep and growth of
these organizations as such.

So we now have the Urantia Movement and the whole revelation with
three dead-end organizations.  A great and simple answer, already
proven to work, is right in front of us: a simple and effective Study
Group Society with everyone in communication together via the
internet.

What is its "legislative branch"? It is free discussion and consensus
or voting by everyone.

Who are its executives? Whoever we, all together, directly elect. And
they are accountable to report everything of interest to everyone
directly via the 'list' (or whatever group communication method is
chosen).

Who publishes the book and other materials? OUR one publishing
department, with an elected head or one appointed by those we elect*.

This will be unifying. Every reader can be a member and play a part
unless they are disinterested or spiteful (we all sometimes resent
change, even when the new is better than the old). If we have a
living, breathing, growing, unified and inclusive reader organization
with at least hundreds if not thousands of real live UB reader
members, and the present organizations are seen to be decaying, "going
nowhere", I don't think we should assume members of the Foundation
won't transition it to being the UB readership's publishing
department, or that Fellowship and IUA people won't migrate various
functions and projects to prevent creating transitional gaps and loss
of resources to the readership and for the revelation, and that
present executives wouldn't stand for election or otherwise continue
to serve within the new framework.

=====

Some Notes:

*We shouldn't make a detailed constitution or overorganize in advance.
Many things should be determined by experience and need. One can
foresee for example that someday there will probably be too many study
groups/members to have all together on one list. But studying and
planning for that development would be premature and counterproductive
at this time. Preplanning and setting constitutions in stone for
today's conditions, or for a potential future that may not develop as
expected, has been one of the problems with many organizations - and
civilizations. Flexibility to adapt to circumstances is vital to
social sustainability.

I'll post the SGC's guidelines later. This post is long enough
already! One needed change: In my original plan of permitting only
contact people for active study groups on the list, individual readers
where there is no study group around couldn't be accommodated. I'm
sure I turned way some good talent. Now I am in that position myself
since I moved to Haida Gwaii. So I would let individuals join and
represent a geographic area where there is no study group.

Someone suggested using the AA organization as a guide or template. AA
too is composed of autonomous local groups and certainly has a simple,
humble, spiritually guided organizational setup -- it puts our present
UB organizations to shame!

Craig Carmichael
250 532 8574 (cell)
February 18th 2018
Haida Gwaii (AKA Queen Charlotte Islands), BC, Canada ("The edge of the world")

On 2/15/18, Anthony Finstad <finstad.anthony@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Rod,
>
> I don’t believe it is required.
>
> Tony
>
>> On Feb 15, 2018, at 12:20 PM, Rod <rodhol@earthlink.net> wrote:
>>
>> Long past 1955, it's bewildering to think that such organizational
>> formality, complexity, and busyness
>> is required to promote a revelation given freely to 606, with English text
>> now in the public domain!
>>
>> Rod
>>
>>
>> On 2/15/2018 8:27 AM, Cece Forrester wrote:
>>> Dear Tony and others:
>>>
>>> I don't wish to be confrontational, but I think this is the time to be
>>> frank about how this news strikes me as a local Society officer and the
>>> concerns it relates to.
>>>
>>> What I'm wondering is: Why is this apparently the first time the
>>> Societies have been informed that this was happening? Come to think of
>>> it, I don't recall seeing any reports to the membership from the General
>>> Council or Executive Committee, following Council meetings, in a very
>>> long time. Also, didn't we used to get copies of the roster of General
>>> Council members and the permanent committees at least once a year via
>>> SocAdmin? Or if we didn't, we should.
>>>
>>> If this change results in the General Council keeping Societies more in
>>> the loop about their organization's business, if there will be regular
>>> communication between the Societies and the Council, and not just at TDA
>>> time, I might conclude it's a good thing. Will there be a Service Team
>>> responsible for that? (Merely observing the outworkings of whatever the
>>> Council decides, as individuals receiving newsletters and whatever,
>>> doesn't really constitute keeping Societies in the loop about business,
>>> and there's no avenue for dialogue there.) But if the disconnect widens,
>>> I will be as concerned for the future of the organization and doubtful of
>>> my ability to support it, as I was around 2000 when the Societies were
>>> being shut out and treated as irrelevant, largely because they differed
>>> from the national leadership in their attitude toward the split and
>>> reconciliation. (But eventually we were listened to.) Now the issue is:
>>> Will the forthcoming ambitious programs have any connection to the
>>> Societies as the grass roots of the organization, or will the
>>> local/regional level be bypassed when it should be nurtured and invited
>>> to give input and be involved in activities? Maybe the Council is
>>> thinking about us, but if so, it would be good to hear from the Council
>>> about that.
>>>
>>> Cece Forrester
>>> Secretary
>>> First Society
>>> Chicago
>>>
>>> P.S. The e-mail address link given on this Fellowship web page
>>> http://www.urantiabook.org/fellowship-public/regional-societies.htm
>>> <http://www.urantiabook.org/fellowship-public/regional-societies.htm>  to
>>> contact First Society is still wrong. I bet it's been at least 3 years
>>> since I requested it be fixed. (Also we now have a website.) Who are we
>>> supposed to tell about stuff like that to get it added? If someone comes
>>> up with a good answer and a new protocol for the future, that will be a
>>> key piece in addressing the issues I cited. And if the links on the page
>>> would all be verified with the Societies and updated, that would be even
>>> better. I know it isn't the Council that runs the website directly, but
>>> someone should be overseeing this function and making sure it serves the
>>> organization's needs. It's pretty basic that someone coming to the
>>> website and looking for their nearest Society should be able to contact
>>> it.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On 2/14/2018 4:34 PM, Anthony Finstad wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Friends,
>>>>
>>>> I wanted to check our Society Officers list to make sure I’m still live!
>>>>  We’re certain to be more active with communications as this summer
>>>> approaches.
>>>>
>>>> In doing this personal test I’ll attach the letter just sent out today
>>>> to all Fellowship members (so you should have received this already)
>>>> that addresses recent organizational changes that go into effect this
>>>> summer and will have TDA implications.
>>>>
>>>> Several of us officers are also GC members, so we can talk about it here
>>>> if you have any questions.
>>>>
>>>> Tony Finstad
>>>> VP : Northern Light Society of Alaska
>>>>
>>>> ~~~~~~~~~
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> February 14, 2018
>>>>
>>>> Announcing A Recent Organizational Change in the General Council of The
>>>> Urantia Book Fellowship
>>>>
>>>> At its summer 2017 meeting in Denver, the General Council passed an
>>>> amendment to the Constitution of The Urantia Book Fellowship which adds
>>>> a new role to the General Council and modifies the composition of the
>>>> Executive Committee. At the January 2018 General Council meeting, a few
>>>> additional adjustments were made. All of these changes go into effect at
>>>> the Triennial General Council meeting in July 2018.
>>>>
>>>> Before the Change - A Short Organizational Review
>>>>
>>>> If you are familiar with the organization of the Fellowship General
>>>> Council, you can skip to the next section.
>>>>
>>>> The General Council consists of thirty-six (36) Councilors elected to
>>>> nine (9) year terms, with twelve (12) being elected each three (3) years
>>>> at the Triennial Delegate Assembly (TDA). The General Council is
>>>> required to meet once a year, but has for some years met twice a year.
>>>>
>>>> The General Council elects, from among its members, the five officers,
>>>> President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, and Secretary General.
>>>>
>>>> There are nine permanent committees referred to in our Constitution as
>>>> Departmental Committees. These are Judicial, Membership, Interfaith,
>>>> Outreach, International Fellowship, Education, Publications, Finance,
>>>> and Youth and Young Adult. The chairs of these committees are elected by
>>>> the General Council from among its membership.
>>>>
>>>> The fourteen (14) member Executive Committee (EC) consists of the five
>>>> officers and the chairs of the nine Departmental Committees. The EC is
>>>> required to meet four times a year. It does meet face-to-face four times
>>>> a year, but for the last six years or so has also had conference or
>>>> video-conference calls every two to four weeks. As stated in the
>>>> Constitution:
>>>>
>>>> The Executive Committee shall be vested with the power to actively
>>>> manage all the affairs of THE URANTIA BOOK FELLOWSHIP in accordance with
>>>> this Constitution and pursuant to the By-laws of THE URANTIA BOOK
>>>> FELLOWSHIP.
>>>>
>>>> The Changes
>>>>
>>>> The nine permanent and some of the other committees of the General
>>>> Council will be grouped into three Service Teams.
>>>>
>>>> The Worldwide Service Team: Outreach, International, Interfaith, Youth
>>>> and Young Adult
>>>> The Fellowship Service Team: Membership, Education, Finance, Judicial
>>>> The Media and Communication Service Team: Publications, IT, Website
>>>> The chairs of the Service Teams will be elected by the General Council,
>>>> from among its members. They serve staggered three-year terms, and will
>>>> be members of the Executive Committee. Candidates for Service Team
>>>> chairs must have served at least two years as an officer of the
>>>> Fellowship or chair of a Departmental Committee. The Chairs of the nine
>>>> permanent committees will no longer be members of the Executive
>>>> Committee. The five officers and three Service Team chairs will comprise
>>>> an eight-member Executive Committee.
>>>>
>>>> The Motivation
>>>>
>>>> A friend recently said “Things work better when they work together on
>>>> purpose.” We want to do a better job at ‘working together on purpose’
>>>> specifically with respect to organization-wide programs. The motivation
>>>> is to enable the design and management of programs that are more
>>>> ambitious and have interdependent activities that span Fellowship
>>>> committees and other working groups. Expressed another way, it is to
>>>> enable the Fellowship to develop and execute organization-wide strategic
>>>> initiatives.
>>>>
>>>> The Reasoning
>>>>
>>>> A smaller Executive Committee, and one whose members are not also
>>>> leading permanent Departmental Committees, will be able to focus on
>>>> overall Fellowship strategy, defining and administering programs that
>>>> have wider scope than any one of the standing committees.
>>>>
>>>> The Service Team chairs will participate in defining Fellowship-wide
>>>> programs on the EC, and will be responsible for ensuring that the
>>>> committees on their Service Team plan and complete the parts of a
>>>> strategic program that are within their charters.
>>>>
>>>> A Call to Service
>>>>
>>>> We invite you, as members of The Urantia Book Fellowship, to consider
>>>> bringing your talents and good judgment to the General Council. These
>>>> changes free up the chairs of the nine Departmental Committees from the
>>>> time and expense of mandatory quarterly Executive Committee meetings,
>>>> not to mention the twenty or so video meetings every year. If you’re
>>>> passionate about serving this great revelation, perhaps as a committee
>>>> chair, as part of a team that is streamlining its structure to be of
>>>> better service to our members and our planet, please consider running
>>>> for the Council at this summer’s TDA.
>>>>
>>>> If you have questions, please email them to ubf.judicial@gmail.com <>.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>>
>>>   Cece Forrester
>>>  ceceforrester@gmail.com <mailto:ceceforrester@gmail.com>
>>>
>>> ________________________________________________________________________
>>> The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of
>>> 60 minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.  -- C. S. Lewis
>>> ________________________________________________________
>>>
>>
>
>